Snooze's heart is pounding, flooding his system with adrenaline. He's ready, if anything happens.

On the way into the room, they encounter Damian and Colin, standing outside the room. As soon as Thaey woke up, Damian snapped and herded Colin out of there. Usually he'd stand firm against a threat but Thaey isn't a /threat/, he's an idiot, and Damian doesn't want Colin anywhere near him.

Jason is standing next to Thaey, giving him disapproving and, honestly, bored looks. He's also working very hard on not letting his anger at being in the same room as a thug and /not/ kicking the hell out of him taint the calming vibes he's trying to put out there. But he can only do it for so long, especially as he's watching Thaey pace around the room, ignoring the zone he just came out of clinging to the edges of his senses.

Mitz holds onto Snooze's hand and keeps his eyes on the floor, avoiding Thaey's glare. He just needs to grab one or two bags - and they're even near the door! - and get out, that's all.

As soon as they enter the room, Thaey starts muttering to himself. He seems crazy. He's not, not really. Just angry and hurt and confused and an idiot and violent. But not crazy. "Get out, get out, get out," he repeats, over and over.

Snooze picks up one of the bags and slings it over his shoulder, leaving his hands free--except for the hand that's clinging to Mitz's. Damian might not think Thaey is a threat, but Damian's not the one whose Guide is determined to make Thaey's life better.

Just as they're leaving, and just as Jason turns to follow them out without a word said, Thaey picks up one of the little wooden chairs that were in the apartment when he and Mitz moved in. He goes to throw it at the door, hoping to catch - someone, really, anyone. He's not thinking.

Jason turns quickly enough to catch Thaey's arms and make him drop the chair. He's a strong guy, stronger than some loser Sentinel with no amount of control or dignity. "Walk. The fuck. Away," he says evenly, though through gritted teeth. Thaey pushes him off and turns, still growling and muttering insults and threats, to walk into his own room in the apartment. The door slams behind him.

Mitz jumps against his will at the sound of the chair falling, and again when the door slams.

Snooze reshoulders the bag and slides his arm around Mitz's waist. "Let's go. Let's get out of here and go home." He jumped, too, and he can't believe he was so slow--he didn't catch Thaey's movement towards the chair at all.

Mitz nods quickly, silently, and watches Jason as he walks out and closes the door behind him. He leans into Snooze a little more.

"Hey, good plan," Jason says like nothing just happened. He checks them all over, mentally, before ushering them down the stairs. "Home sounds good. You all together there, baby bat?" He calls over to Damian, who's been silent but deadly, in a sense, for a while now.

Damian has actually bruised Colin, he's been gripping him so tightly, but Colin's swallowed any noises of protest. To be fair, Colin's pretty angry, too--who the heck throws a /chair/ at people? Once the bedroom door closes, Damian lets Colin go. They get the rest of the bags and head down the stairs with the others, Damian breathing right down Colin's neck. "We're fine, Todd, worry about your own skin," Damian snaps.

Mitz's nerves aren't eased enough to feel safe with an angry Damian around, though, even if he is helping Mitz and Snooze out with this. He stays probably far, far too close to Snooze to make it easy for them to get down the stairs.

I don't think /any/ of them mind. Damian and Colin are practically glued together, and Snooze is going to be as close to Mitz as the stairs and bags will let him be. They'll take as long as they need to take to get to the car.

Alfred is probably /freaking out/, having monitored all of that from afar.

Alfred would have known that butting in would help no-one, though, wise old man. Stressful, though, experiencing everything from afar. I would say he's used to it, poor dear.

Jason pats him on the shoulder when they get down to the car and helps everyone load the bags in. He pauses for a second, looking at them, watching Damian herd Colin inside. He sighs. "How about we get something to eat? Somethin' nice and greasy - or sweet. Like fuckin' pie or something?"

Snooze and Mitz, and Colin and Damian, form pretty much mirror images on the car seats. Damian runs his fingers over Colin's bruises, silently apologising without actually having to say the words. Snooze is wrapped around Mitz attempting to get his mind off the raging thundercloud upstairs in the apartment. Snooze and Colin do look at Jason when he talks.

Mitz turns enough to press his face against Snooze's arm again, this being his new-found favorite way to be close to him under stress, and sighs in relief as they pull away from the apartment. It felt like they were there for days. It was horrible.

"Dunno," Mitz says, sighing under Snooze's hands. He doesn't even feel embarrassed about how much he likes being touched by Snooze when the others are around, since they're kind of worse when it comes to touching in public. "I've had apple before? Um. And some meat pies, I think. Yeah! Those microwave chicken ones."

Mitz laughs, delighted. "Dunno if I'll be that fun when I'm all fat, though?" he says. "Never wanting to go running with you, making odd noises when pie is mentioned. It'd be like having a useless dog."

"I am not freaking out," Damian sulks, but eases a little. He doesn't particularly /want/ to, but he supposes he should give his Guide room to breathe as well as keep him safe. Give Colin room to breathe, he means. ...maybe he is freaking out a little. But he's always been particularly territorial.

Snooze thinks about it. "Well, we could always get you skinny again, then start all over with feeding you up."

Which Colin likes. He likes belonging to Damian, Damian being possessive, protective. Colin's been learning how to take care of himself, but it's nice to know Damian will always be there to take care of him, too. But it's a little ridiculous, Damian taking care of him in an armoured car with their family all around. "Okay," Colin says. "Okay, you're not freaking out. If you say so."

Mitz leans his forehead against Snooze's, impossibly enamoured. "We'll just, just muck around with my weight as the seasons change, yeah?" he grins. "I'll be fat for winter and lose everything for summer."

"You don't believe me," Damian says. It's not a question but it's not really defensive or angry in the slightest. He's more amused by Colin's ease at being sarcastic at him. It's always been an odd kind of fondness that shines through when Colin doesn't take him as seriously as everyone else - yet he takes him seriously when no-one else does.

"And, and I'll keep you warm, too," Mitz says quietly. More because he's nervous voicing the kind of soppy thoughts he has, not because Damian and Colin are there. They're pretty wrapped up in themselves.

"Oh, la-di-da," Damian drawls, starting to smile thinly. "'I'm a fancy, bonded Guide and I know when my Sentinel's /supposedly/ flying off the handle, look at me, I'm Colin'. That's what you sound like." Damian presses his nose into Colin's hair and breathes him in.

"Hey, I don't see any handles," Colin grins. His eyes kind of flutter closed. "I'm just sayin'. I don't think anything's gonna get inside this car and push me around. I don't think the Secret Service could get inside this car." He carefully doesn't mention that Damian is the one giving him bruises, where Thaey didn't at all.

"I'm calm," Damian insists. "I know you're perfectly safe. You're with me." And he is calm, now. He just really hated the thought of that prick touching Colin. Usually he keeps any of his overly protective urges under wraps. He hasn't growled at one of the family in months. But Thaey - Damian glances at Snooze with his Guide, through Colin's hair. If anyone dared touch Colin like that Sentinel had touched the Stillhaven boy... The thought gets his blood a little hot.

Damian frowns and presses his face further in Colin's hair. If Colin ever wants to get it cut, Damian's going to sulk for months until it's back again. "I'm fine," he repeats, stroking the bruises he left gently. He's deeply sorry he did that in an effort to keep Colin safe.

"Damn right you couldn't. If we only had one can of beans to our names, it'd be yours," Snooze mutters.

Colin's hair keeps his head warm, why would he get it cut? And he loves how Damian always hides his face in it, it's such a shy, totally unlike-Damian thing. "You are fine," he agrees. "So'm I." The bruises are like little reminders of how much Damian cares, of what he's willing to do to keep Colin safe. They hurt, but they mean he's Damian's.

Mitz laughs again. "Well, uh, I think that'd be one of the few instances where you'd probably have to fight me, so," he shrugs. "I mean, I'm not going to let you go hungry. Those beans are /ours/, after all."

"Good," Damian says, which is about as close as a true apology as he's going to get until he gets Colin back to their room. He's upset with himself. He was doing that to keep Colin safe, yes, but he was keeping him safe from a Sentinel who thinks it's fine to hurt his Guide - who he thought was his Guide. Damian is toeing that line, he knows, and he doesn't like it in the slightest.

"I think you could get through it," Snooze objects. "If you really put your mind to it."

They can fight about how good a person Damian is until the cows come home. Colin has absolute faith in Damian, and that's the end of it. Damian won't abuse him. Not when he and his family have fought against abusers for so long.

"Nah, I'll be /stuffed/, Snooze, I will," Mitz insists, loving this. He hasn't been allowed to be silly since the last time he saw his brother which was... probably years ago. "I honestly wouldn't be able to eat another bite. Oof, no, you, you should take the rest. In that hypothetical instance."

Damian wouldn't let himself abuse Colin. He'd end himself before he does that. But what scares him is his capacity to do so. He doesn't want to, so he won't, but he's able. He hates the thought.